Cordiali Saluti, Brotherhood! (New AC CM)

I've been given the great opportunity to be one of the new Assassin's Creed Community Managers. I'm thrilled to be able to get to know all of you better and look forward to all the awesome AC community events.

Quick intro: My name is Grace and I'll be part of the North/Central/South America community team working on AC. Although I'm new to Ubisoft as an employee, I've been a long time fan of many of their games. AC1 was one of my first experiences with Ubi and since then the series has been such an amazing and special part of my gaming experience (who doesn't love to run around beautiful sprawling cities while occasionally punching a Templar in their smug Templar face?).

Please don't hesitate to reach out and ask questions, chat, or whatever strikes your fancy. I'm here to help facilitate your thoughts reaching the Ubi/AC team and vice-versa. I look forward to interacting with you all and helping however I can to keep the AC community amazing/thriving.

Yes, of course! I think to really love a franchise you have to be in some ways critical of it - that's the way that the games get improved and the experience becomes more refined. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Oh man this is hard - I think in terms of story gotta be AC2, game play AC4, characters AC:S, but AC1 always has a very soft spot for me because nostalgia. I played through one so many times because it felt so different from any other game I'd played before that.

I'm a huge fan of the franchise myself, and particularily of the multiplayer that existed from Brotherhood until Black Flag. Some of us saw in it a unique multiplayer and even until now, there's still a few of us playing it and even organizing tournaments, without Ubisoft's support. Unfortunately, this multiplayer got removed from the games since Unity, and I think I speak for the majority of the multiplayer community when I say that the lack of communication between Ubisoft and the Multiplayer community has been very poor. This is partly due to some members who have reacted very aggressively to the removal of their favorite component.

However, some of us are less vocal about it but would still like to hear a little bit more about this subject from Ubisoft, and I see the opportunity now with a new Community Manager to try and finally get some answers about some questions that are on our mind:

Why was the Multiplayer removed, and is the removal definitive or is there a chance of it coming back?

Why does it seem like the Multiplayer Community isn't part of Ubisoft's concern anymore, and most of us are even blocked by one of the other community managers (won't give any names)?

Why does Ubisoft refuse to update us on the situation with multiplayer? As simple "yes it will come back one day" or "no we don't plan on bringing it back would be enough...

I really hope some of these questions will finally get answered.

Thanks for listening to us and I wish you all the best in your new job!

As to your questions, I completely understand your and the community's frustration with lack of multiplayer in the most recent edition. It's been a unique and very fun game type that I've enjoyed as well and I'm so pumped to hear that you all have kept it going.

Unfortunately I can't give you a definitive answer, not for lack of desire, but because I don't know myself. A lot of the stuff in development - especially because of the break -- is very hush hush.

I'm very sorry to hear that, I'm not sure how it was approached before I arrived, but I wouldn't ever want to give you all the impression that we simply won't be bothered. I'm hoping that we can address these concerns moving forward, please feel free to reach out to me if you'd like.

Again, I can't definitively answer this - sorry! My impression is that, especially given how the last few games have been leaked - information on what's in development is on lock-down.

As soon as I receive the info/approval to give out any of that information I will be sure to pass it along to you all. I will also pass on your thoughts towards multiplayer to the team - my job is to advocate for what the community wants!

I know those weren't the answers you wanted, but I hope I've conveyed why we don't quite have them yet. :)

I'm very happy to hear that you guys are listening to us! I know that the multiplayer for Assassin's Creed was never the serie's primary focus, yet me, as many others, have been very passionate about it, and especially frustrated that Ubisoft never really commented on the removal of this component in their later titles. It would mean a lot to some of us if we could, maybe at the reveal of the next AC game, if Ubisoft could address this issue, even if the next game doesn't include multiplayer again.

Of course I totally understand that you can't give us any infos about future titles, but I'm really grateful that you will pass on my thoughts to the team. For a situation like this, I think it would have been important for Ubisoft to at least announce that the multiplayer would take a few years break. Right now, many of us just feel like it was abondoned and Ubisoft is trying to avoid the subject and forget about it.

As for how things were handled before you came: let's just say that there have been a few people who got a little bit too upset and got very vocal about it, creating a bad relation between the devs and the community. I just want you guys to know that there is still people out there who are passionate about the game and are patiently waiting for the multiplayer's return, hopefully one day, and admire the work the devs have put into creating such a fresh take on multiplayer.

Anyways, many thanks again for your reply, it's really good to see our concerns finally getting aknowledged!

Do you think there is any chance we will ever see the modern day story return to it's earlier prominence within the games? I.E. Playable MD characters, significant advancement of plot, and the cliffhanger endings we all loved so much? It feels a little bit as though things have stalled, or at the very least massively slowed, since the end of AC3.

I know you aren't directly involved in those facets of the game, I was just curious about your thoughts on the matter.

Unfortunately I do not have any info on that, but I do completely understand what you're saying.

From a personal standpoint, I really do hope that it is something that we address. I think one of the great strengths of the series is the historical tourism aspect of it, but I think the team could do something just as amazing with a future city. I would love to get a better feel for how the modern Templar-Assassin conflict is approached.

I tried recently playing the first original Assassin's Creed game, but after a few minutes of playing, I just couldn't play it anymore. I know this game has been out since 2007. But still I wish that somehow Ubisoft would remake this game, or at least update the player's movements, fighting and parkour mechanics. I mean once you play the most recent up to date Assassin's Creed game, like Assassin's Creed unity or Syndicate, there's really no reason at all to go back and replay as Altair at all. I mean to actually play as Altair and enjoy the game play, you'll have to accept playing as Altair in Assassin's Creed Revelations, in order to do so. Is there really any way for Ubisoft to go back and try to smooth out some of Assassin's Creed 1's original game play mechanics, or do they leave the game play the way it is, because it's game engine is very dated, and there's really no point to go back and give that game some decent updates.

I understand what you mean - I would LOVEEEEE an current gen remake of the first AC game. It would be so amazing to be able to run through those cities again and play as Altair with everything amped up to AC:S graphics/gameplay.

It would be niceeeeee now wouldn't it! The Assassin's Creed Anvil game engine's micro stuttering, on the pc port is either unnoticeable to most, or most aren't bring the issues up to Ubisoft. It shouldn't take top of the line up to date current pc hardware, to make an very old Assassin's Creed game work properly. One would think that having the top of the line hardware, gpu, cpu, ram etc., would fix the issues, but no the hardware does absolutely nothing. And the flaws for the pc port frame rate micro stuttering, is even more noticeable, than playing on an pc with the hardware, at the time of the Assassin's Creed game was released. Ubisoft needs to really get their game engine together, so these minor to major frame rate stuttering issues, can come to a complete halt. This is why I mentioned that the game should be remade as a master remake version.